A Trek to Mendenhall Glacier (Juneau, Alaska)

One thing I wanted to do in Alaska was the glacier trek. In Juneau you can go with the tour group Above and Beyond Alaska. It's an 8 hour hike/trek for $199 per person so it's not cheap, but I think it's well worth doing. The hiking bit isn't actually that long but it takes longer because of the rock scrambling and you spend a lot of time on the glacier so the total trip is 8 hours. They'll pick you up at a hotel and provide you with rain gear, a day pack with a bottle or water and snacks, and hiking poles should you need one. Oh, and of course crampons and ice axe for walking on the glacier later. You need to come prepared with your own good hiking shoes, though.

The trek started easy with a flat trail through a temperate rainforest. 

One of the reasons you might not want to attempt this trek on your own as a tourist is because the trail changes all the time. When I did the hike the main trail was flooded so we had to do a lot of bush whacking around. This is when you need a local guide!

There was some steep descent on volcanic rock, then some rock scrambling after the forest trail ends.

 

At the top, you'll finally see Mendenhall glacier! It's about a mile in width and stops at the lake (so, another option as I've found out later is that you can kayak to the glacier via the lake, which would be a lot shorter at 45-60 minutes).

Almost there!

There's a lot of silt around the edges, but you can already see some beautiful white and blue parts. And caves! 
It's time to put on the crampons and walk on the glacier.

A Jet Ski Tour Around Key West, Florida

If you're looking for something to do in Key West, consider taking a jet ski tour. I did one through a company called Fury, which cost $129.95 per jet ski (you can go tandem for the same price) although they have a discounted price of $99.95 you manage to snag the first tour out at 8:30 am. You can also get a discount if you book online on http://www.furycat.com/mobile/jet-ski-tours.php

Too bad I didn't know beforehand!

When I rented jet skis in California they usually tell you can go around a small area of the ocean, which is fine for trying out jet skis. With this tour, though, they actually take you on a 28-mile loop around the island of Key West!

You take off along with about ten other jet skis, forming a well separated line, slow at first until you exit the marina. Then they will tell you that the minimum speed you should maintain is 30 mph and that the faster you go the easier it is to make tight turns. Those who want to go full throttle (that's 45 mph) go first behind the first guide.

For the first half of the tour you enter the Gulf of Mexico. The waves are smaller here, so the ride's not too bumpy. "This is easy", I thought! Until I entered the open ocean ...

Trying Hydrobikes in Long Beach

What's a hydrobike? Just like the name says, it's a bicycle you ride on water. Basically it's a bike propped on top of floats and instead of wheels the pedals connect to a little propeller in the back. You can rent hydrobikes in Long Beach from https://www.lbhydrobikes.com/for $20 per hour (as usual, I got a Groupon and the deal is still available for $10 an hour here) per person, and you can either get a single bike or a tandem.

It works just like a bike, except for turning on a tandem bike. To turn right on the tandem, instead of steering to the right, the one on the right stops pedaling while the one on the left pedal. 

They give you a map to tell you where to go for that one hour, which is around this inlet of Naples Island - a three-island neighborhood in Alamitos Bay. You will pass under five bridges and see some nice homes and boats, along with people kayaking, paddle boarding, and swimming.

Someone had a Bob's Big Boy statue next to his boat, nice!

It turned out to be quite a workout, though - pedaling through water wasn't all that easy! But, hey, a much better view than spin class. I even saw a seal on the way back, the little guy was playing near the beach!

Nice view, nice workout - not bad for $20.

La Jolla Sea Caves Kayak

I recently bought a deal from Travelzoo (really, I never do anything at full price these days ... ) for a kayaking tour of La Jolla Sea Caves. We first met at the tour office (the deal was for OEX Dive & Kayak) and walked to the beach with the guide. Almost everyone got a tandem kayak.

The kayaking is very safe, but the time where you are most likely to flip over is when you first get on the kayak and take off from the beach. Especially for tandem kayaks, since both of you are trying to get on while maintaining balance and the waves are rougher near the shore. Yes, we flipped over! But that was the first and last time we flipped.

The tour takes about an hour - it's quite a workout for my arms! It was the first time I was in the back and it was my friend's first kayaking experience, so I had to figure out how to give directions :P

The tour guide gave a lot of tidbits about the houses we see on the shore. That white house with the slanted roof below was Dr. Seuss' house!

He told us stories about how one of the homeowners here had to pay a fine when birds crashed into his glass windows. The glass and other things fell into the water and he had to pay a fine because it's a marine preserve. You really have to be rich and then some to own a house here.

For the kayaking tour, I was rather disappointed that we didn't get closer to the sea caves. There were people who were swimming through one of the caves but I think for that you're supposed to buy the kayak and snorkel tour combo. I didn't know! For the kayak tour, we just kayak alongside the caves and turned back. Still, it was a nice view and a good workout.

Windsports Hang Gliding Beach Lesson

I recently took an introductory hang gliding lesson with Windsports Hang Gliding (another Groupon buy!). The introductory lesson takes place on Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey and gets you seven flights. If you'd rather run off a cliff instead of the beach, they do have mountain tandem lessons. In the beach lesson you kind of fly off on your own, but the instructor runs alongside you.

The best part is that you  get to fly off in the very first lesson, so you get to feel the action immediately. First they teach you the basic of how to strap yourself in, lift the glide to get ready, and handle the glide. This was only a 15 minute talk or so, and the rest is practice. Surprisingly, the glide is very sensitive and you must handle it very lightly to maneuver.

My friend Jenny getting ready for a run

One of my better runs: 

It may seem short on the video, but it was awesome to glide "alone" in the air. Hang gliding seems to be a great new activity to pick up. With Dockweiler Beach nearby, you can practice on your own safely before taking mountain lessons. You *do* have to carry the glide back up, though. Man, that thing was heavy!

Paragliding or hang gliding? Can't decide ...